Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India - BBC News Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India By Mukti Jain Campion Writer and radio producer 12 July 2012 Read more about sharing. Close share panel In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print and a new edition is due out next year. What accounts for its enduring appeal? Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary's short and mysterious title. The subtitle reveals more: "A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. By Colonel Henry Yule and AC Burnell." But even the word "discursive" doesn't quite prepare the reader for what is to come. "It's a madly unruly and idiosyncratic work," says poet Daljit Nagra.

50 words from India B - bandana, bangle, bazaar, Blighty, bungalow C - cashmere, catamaran, char, cheroot, cheetah, chintz, chit, chokey, chutney, cot, cummerbund, curry D - dinghy, doolally, dungarees J - jodhpur, jungle, juggernaut, jute K - khaki, kedgeree P - pariah, pashmina, polo, pukka, pundit, purdah, pyjamas S - sari, shampoo, shawl, swastika T - teak, thug, toddy, typhoon V - veranda Y - yoga Sources: Hobson-Jobson, Oxford English Dictionary "Not so much an orderly dictionary as a passionate memoir of colonial India. Rather like an eccentric Englishman in glossary form." Take the entry for the Indian word dam. The dictionary defines it as: "Originally an actual copper coin.

Damri is a common enough expression for the infinitesimal in coin, and one has often heard a Briton in India say: 'No, I won't give a dumree!' with but a vague notion what a damri meant." That is the etymology of dam. But Yule and Burnell have more to say. "And this leads to the suggestion that a like expression, often heard from coarse talkers in England as well as in India, originated in the latter country, and that whatever profanity there may be in the animus, there is none in the etymology, when such an one blurts out 'I don't care a dam!' in other words, 'I don't care a brass farthing!'" There is a huge delight in language that's evident throughout the dictionary, says Dr Kate Teltscher, reader in English Literature at Roehampton University, who is preparing the new Oxford World Classics edition. "It's a hugely ambitious attempt to trace linguistic influence… it's all about the distance that words travel," she says.

"It's also about looking at words in their context, and seeing how they describe a lost way of life." When the book was published, it was already a source of nostalgia for the passing of the East India Company era as India came under British rule. Hobson-Jobson-isms Kedgeree: A dish of seasoned rice. Hobson-Jobson defines it as "a mess of rice, cooked with butter and dal and flavoured with a little spice and shred onion." Shampoo: To "knead and press the muscles with the view of relieving fatigue". Pyjamas: A "pair of loose drawers or trousers, tied round the waist". Gymkhana: "It is applied to a place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of sorts are provided." Veranda: "An open pillared gallery round a house." Kedgeree: How to make your own "There was a market for it in India, amongst the British serving in India. One review recommended it as an ideal 'after-dinner reading in camp'," says Teltscher. "It does include a lot of administrative terms - things that the British needed to know.

But it was also clearly meant for diversion and entertainment, both for the British serving in India and the British when they had returned home." Anglo-Indian food features prominently. For example, it defines kedgeree (or kitchery) thus: "A mess of rice, cooked with butter and dal and flavoured with a little spice, shred onion, and the like. It's a common dish all over India, and often served at Anglo-Indian breakfast tables. In England we find the word is often applied to a mess of re-cooked fish, served for breakfast, but this is inaccurate. Fish is frequently eaten with kedgeree, but is no part of it." Chilly, we learn, is "the popular Anglo-Indian name of the pod of red pepper". "There is little doubt that the name was taken from Chile in South America," the compilers Yule and Burnell say, "whence the plant was carried to the Indian archipelago and thence to India." "Who doesn't know what chilli means now?" asks Daljit Nagra.

"But here it's been recorded probably for first time in a Western dictionary and I love the idea of witnessing the birth of that word." For writers such as Nagra, Hobson-Jobson has often been a source of inspiration. Here is how Hobson-Jobson defines naukar-chaukar. It means "the servants" but the authors continue: "One of those jingling double-barrelled phrases in which Orientals delight even more than Englishmen... As regards Englishmen, compare hugger-mugger, hurdy-gurdy, tip-top, higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, tit-for-tat, topsy-turvy... harum-scarum, roly-poly, rump and stump, slip-slop…" "I love these rhyming words in Hobson-Jobson," says Nagra. "They're such a familiar feature of my mother tongue and I can see how it's inspired so many writers, most famously Salman Rushdie whose novel Midnight's Children is richly sprinkled with phrases such as writing-shiting, pudding-shudding." The word Hobson-Jobson itself is one of these.

Find out more Poet Daljit Nagra revels in this extraordinary word horde in Hobson-Jobson: A Very English Enterprise on Radio 4, 11:00 BST, Friday 13 July "My friend Major John Trotter tells me that he has repeatedly heard this phrase used by British soldiers in the Punjab. It is in fact an Anglo-Saxon version of the wailings of the Mahommedans as they beat their breasts in the procession of the Moharram - 'Ya Hasan! Ya Hosain!'" Another author who has drawn inspiration from the dictionary is Tom Stoppard.

In his play Indian Ink, two characters compete to use as many Hobson-Jobson words as possible: Flora: "While having tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgeree on my dungarees and had to go to the gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a coolie." Nirad: "I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny." Stoppard says he deliberately chose words that the English-speaking audience would be familiar with. One of the surprises is that there are so many of these. "By exploring the words that are in Hobson-Jobson we start to realise how many words that we use every day, we don't even think of as particularly being of Indian origin actually are," says Teltscher. "So words like shampoo, words like pyjamas, words like bangle. We tend to think of Empire in terms of domination and control, in terms of the way power was used and abused.

But we can also think of it in more intimate ways and I think Hobson-Jobson allows us to do that." Nagra says this is exactly what he loves about Hobson-Jobson. "That it now feels like a benign project of Victorian multiculturalism, where words from Hindi, Malay, Arabic and even Chinese can cohabit and intermingle with English words - words that have themselves been remade by rubbing alongside their new neighbours." In his introduction to the book, Yule writes that words of Indian origin have been "insinuating themselves into English ever since the end of the reign of Elizabeth and the beginning of that of King James". Terms such as calico, chintz and gingham had already by then "effected a lodgement in English warehouses and shops, and were lying in wait for entrance into English literature". Eccentric, entertaining, full of curious detail, the dictionary is nonetheless very much of its time. Teltscher notes "an almost innate sense of British cultural superiority" running through the book. Novelist Amitav Ghosh, meanwhile, is quite sure he would not wish to meet Yule and Burnell. "No. I don't think I would at all," he says.

"I enjoy the book but it's absolutely ridden with ideas of racial separation. I would never be a guest at their dinner party." Arthur Burnell, a scholar of South Indian languages, died before the project was completed. Colonel Henry Yule, a retired Bengal engineer, who became president of the Royal Asiatic Society, eventually drew his 14-year labour to a close in 1886, not because it was finished, but as he put it, "ars longa, vita brevis". Art is long, life is short. Hobson-Jobson: A Very English Enterprise is broadcast on Radio 4 at 11:00 BST on Friday 13 July Words, words, words… | SchoolsOnline SchoolsOnline 7 – 11 years, 11 – 14 years Recommended length: partner Details: Explore common usage words in English that have their origins in other languages and work as a team to set a quiz for your partner school and solve the mystery words. Dictionaries Introduction Explain to learners that there are many words in common usage in English that have their origins in other languages. Ask if your learners know any of them Use the lists below to provide a few examples.

Arabic (20) admiral, alchemy, arsenal, cotton, elixir, gerbil, giraffe, jar, lacquer, lute, magazine, marzipan, mattress, monsoon, racket, sash, sequin, sofa, syrup, zenith cannibal, canoe, hammock, iguana, macaw, maize, papaya, potato, savannah, tobacco French (20) artist, aviation, ballet, blanket, blonde, café, chemist, comic, employ, forest, gallop, garage, justice, nutrition, pause, prison, proper, restaurant, social, search Hindi (20) bangle, blighty, bungalow, cashmere, cheetah, chit, cot, dinghy, dungarees, guru, juggernaut, jungle, khaki, loot, pajamas, punch (the drink), pundit, shampoo, thug, verandah Italian (24) arcade, balcony, ballet, bandit, cartoon, coffee, confetti, corridor, gallery, graffiti, macaroni, novel, opera, pants, piano, pizza, policy, propaganda, solo, spaghetti, studio, traffic, umbrella, volcano Spanish (22)

 alligator, barbecue, barricade, bravado, canyon, cargo, cask, embargo, galleon, grenade, guerilla, hacienda, hurricane, mosquito, ranch, renegade, sherry, silo, stampede, stevedore, vamoose, vigilante Ask learners to work in teams of two or three students and to choose a word they like the sound of.

Using a dictionary (or on-line tool) the team should find a good definition for that word. Ask the group to invent two alternative made-up meanings for the word in order to set a little quiz. They can use their imaginations or find definitions for other words from the dictionary to do this. Either way, all definitions should seem plausible. Exchange class sets of words, with accompanying definitions, with your partner school. Use your usual channels of communication, depending on what works for both schools in collaboration. These could include post, email, skype, Dropbox, Facebook, VLE etc. Remember to keep a copy. Once you have received the words and definitions from your partner school, work in the same teams to try to guess the correct definition for each word. Use your usual channels of communication, once more to find out how many your school and your partner school have guessed correctly. Whoever guesses the most correct answers is the winner. Most importantly, have fun with words. Discuss the exchanges with the class. What have they learnt about many words in English? Why do they think this is so? What has surprised them? One or both partner schools could develop some of their ‘Words, words, words’ work into a collaborative activity for the International School Award.

To do this they should keep full records of their activities, findings, outcomes and impacts, and ask some pupils, teachers and parents to complete evaluation forms. They might invite pupils to keep project log-books and include a range of material from both schools showing what has been exchanged between them. It might be possible to link this to World Book Day and for classes in both schools to look at types of words, or even unknown ones, inside a selected book You could progress to longer schemes of work on what the English language means to individuals across the globe, how the words we use today have been shaped by other cultures and languages, and how using and playing with language can be fun: The English Effect. Related resources Etymology of Selected Words of Indian Language Origin Citations Introduction: "We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue.

We must teach them some foreign language " "It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England." So stated Thomas Babington Macualay, about the vernacular and the literary languages of India, in his Minute on Indian Education that he submitted to the parliament in 1835. Hence it is ironical that many Indian words, mainly from Sanskrit and Persian, were absorbed into the English language during the British colonial rule in India, known as the British Raj. Some of these words are easily recognizable as Indian words. There are others, though a part of modern day spoken English, which are seldom recognized as being of Indian origin. Most of these words were assimilated during the period of 16th to 20th century, when the British were following an aggressive imperial policy abroad, especially the Indian subcontinent. India, was what made the English empire great and mighty, and was appropriately called 'the jewel of the imperial crown'.

However the British were not the only European nation, interested in India as a colony; but French, Portuguese and even Spanish, wanted to establish this country - rich in resources and manpower- as one of their own colonies. Consequently there are some words that have come to English from French and Portuguese, which in turn had been absorbed to those languages by a native Indian language. It is often discussed the intellectual benefits - among many others - the British colonizer imparted to the Indian natives, but seldom is talked about the benefits reaped by the colonizer from a language & "a literature (Arabic, Sanskrit and other literary languages) admitted to be of small intrinsic value." Following is a short essay tracing the roots of many Indian languages, and how a sizeable number of words were assimilated to the English language, during this particular period. Some Indian borrowings are listed below: Philosophical and Learned Terms Aryan - A member of the people who spoke the parent language of the Indo-European languages. In Nazism, a Caucasian Gentile, especially Nordic type. Of or relating to Indo-Iranian languages. Sanskrit arya - noble chakra - One of the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body according to yoga philosophy.

Sanskrit chakram - wheel, circle dharma - A Buddhist principle and ultimate truth. Social custom and right behavior. Hindu moral law. Hindi dharma, from Sanskrit Guru - A teacher and a guide in spiritual and philosophical matters. A mentor. A recognized leader in a field. "Fitness Guru" Hindi/Punjab - guru (teacher), from Sanskrit guruh -weighty, heavy, grave Juggernaut - Something, such as a belief or an institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed. An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seem to crush everything in its path. The name of the Hindu deity Krishna - Juggernath Hindi Jaganath - Lord Krishna, from Sanskrit jaganatha : jagath -moving/the world + nathah - Lord/God Mandala - Any of various ritualistic geometric designs symbolic of the universe, used in Hinduism and Buddhism, as an aid to meditation. Tamil mutalai - ball, from Sanskrit mandalam - circle Nirvana - In Buddhism, the ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion.

A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire now sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma. It represents the final goal in Buddhism. A state of perfect happiness. From Sanskrit nirvana, nirva -be extinguished + nis -out + va - to blow Pariah - A social outcast. An Untouchable. Tamil pariah - caste name which means 'hereditary drummer'. The caste system in India placed pariahs or untouchables very low in society. First recorded in English in 1613. Pundit - A learned person. A source of opinion. A critic. "a political pundit" Hindi pandit - a learned man, from Sanskrit panditah - learned scholar, perhaps from Dravidian origin. Purdah - A curtain or screen, used mainly in India to keep women separated from men or strangers. The Hindu or Muslim system of sex segregation, practiced especially by women in seclusion. Social seclusion: 'artists living in luxurious purdah' Urdu/Persian paradah - veil, curtain.

pan-around, over + da- to place Sati (suttee) - the former Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husbands funeral pyre. Hindi sati, from Sanskrit meaning 'faithful wife' This practice was banned in India in the early 20th century, when the British ruled over India. However it continues even today, in under developed states and rural villages, such as Bihar (a state in North India) Sutra - a rule or aphorism in Sanskrit literature or a set of these grammar or Hindu law or philosophy. In Buddhism - A scriptural narrative, especially a text traditionally regarded as a discourse of the Buddha. Sanskrit - sutram, tread, string Kamasutra - A Sanskrit treatise setting forth rules for sexual, sensuous and sensual love, and marriage: in accordance with Hindu law, made popular today by Western marital therapists and psychologists. Sanskrit - Kamasutram: kamah - love, sutram - thread, string, manual Swastika - The emblem of the Nazi Germany, officially adopted in 1935. In Buddhism and Hinduism, a religious symbol representing noble qualities and good luck.

An ancient cosmic symbol formed by a Greek cross with ends of the arms bent at right angles either clockwise or a counterclockwise direction. Sanskrit svastika - sign of good luck: Svast - well being Yoga - A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which includes breath control, simple meditation and the adoption of specific body postures widely practiced for relaxation. Sanskrit, literally meaning 'union', referring to the union of the mind, body and spirit. Clothes, Clothing and Fashion Bandana (bandanna) - A large handkerchief usually figured and brightly colored. Portuguese from, Hindi bandhunu (tie dyeing) and bandhana (to tie): from Sanskrit bhandhana tying. This word was probably absorbed to Portuguese, when the Portuguese ruled over Goa, Bombay during the early part of the 17th century, and from Portuguese was absorbed to English. Bindi - A dot marked on the forehead, by Hindu wives, and sometimes men, to adorn or as a sign of the third eye - wisdom or God Shiva. From Hindi bindi. Made famous in the West by pop music singers. Bangle - A rigid bracelet or anklet, especially one with no clasp.

An ornament that hangs from a bracelet or necklace. Hindi bungri - glass Cashmere - Fine downy wool growing in the outer hair of the cashmere goat. A soft fabric made out of this wool or similar fibres. Named after the state of Kashmir in India, where these goats were found in abundance, and famous for woolen clothing during the British Raj. Chintz - A printed and glazed cotton fabric, usually of bright colors. Cotton cloth, especially plain white or unbleached. Hindi chint, from Sanskrit citra - shiny, variegated Cummerbund - A broad sash, especially one that is pleated lengthwise & worn as an article of formal dress, as with dinner jacket. Hindi & Urdu - kamarband, from Persian kamar- waist + bandi- band The sash was formally worn in the Indian subcontinent by domestic workers and low status office workers. Dhoti - A loincloth worn by Hindu men in India. The cotton fabric used for such loincloths. From Hindi dhoti Dungaree - A sturdy, often blue, denim fabric. Trousers or overalls made of sturdy denim fabric.

Hindi dumgri - hard/coarse. Gunny - A coarse, heavy fabric made of jute or hemp, used especially for bags or sacks. Hindi ghoni - sack, from Sanskrit gharati-sack Jute - Either of 2 plants yielding a fiber used for sacking and cordage. Bengali jhuto, from Sanskrit jutah - twisted hair, probably of Dravidian origin. Jodhpurs - Long riding breeches, tight from the knee to ankle, named after the ancient city, Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan in North India. Men in this state wear trousers akin to riding breeches, hence the name 'jodhpurs'. Khaki - A light olive brown to moderate or light yellowish brown. A sturdy cloth of this color. Khakis - trousers made from this cloth. Urdu khaki - dusty or dust colored, from Persian khak - dust Musk- A strong smelling reddish brown substance which is secreted by the male musk-deer for scent making, which is also an important ingredient in perfumery.

From Late Latin miscus, from Persian musk, from Sanskrit muska (scrotum) Pajamas/pyjama - A lose fitting garment consisting of trousers and a jacket, worn for sleeping or lounging, often used in plural. Hindi paijama - loose fitting trousers, from Persian pai- leg + jamah - garment Sari - A garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately run around the body, worn by women in the Indian subcontinent. It has 6 yards of material, with 1.5 yards hanging from one shoulder down to the ground, intricately woven with bright or contrasting colors. From Hindi sari Shampoo - A liquid preparation containing soap for washing hair. Hindi campoo - press. Words related to Food Curry - A heavily spiced sauce or relish made with curry powder and eaten with rice, meat, fish or other food. A dish seasoned with curry powder - a mixture of various spices.

Tamil - kari Ginger - Mid E gingiveri from Old E gingifer, from Old French gingivre, from Med Latin-gingiber, from Latin zungiberi, from Greek - zingiberis from Pali singieram, from Dravidian (similar to Tamil) inciver, inci - ginger + ver- root. Ghee - A clarified, semi-fluid butter used especially in Indian cooking Hindi ghi, from Sanskrit gharati - sprinkles. Kebab - Dish of small pieces of meat and/or vegetables, cooked on skewers Urdu/Persian kabab - roasted meat. Kedgeree - A dish of rice, fish, hard-boiled eggs, often served for breakfast. In North India kedgeree refers to a mixture of rice cooked with butter and dhal, with spices and shredded onions. Hindi kedegree - butter rice Mango - A fleshy yellowish-red tropical fruit, which is eaten ripe or used green for pickels. From Portuguese manga, from Malay manga, from Tamil manaky which means mango tree fruit.

Animal Names Mongoose - Any of various Old World carnivorous mammals having agile body and a long tail and noted for the ability to seize and kill venomous snakes. Marathi mangus, of Dravidian origin. Anaconda - A large non-venomous arboreal snake of tropical South America that kills its prey by suffocating in its coils. Alteration of Sinhalese henakandaya - whip snake. Cheetah - A long-legged, swift running wild cat of Africa and Southwest Asia, having black-spotted, tawny fur and non-retractile claws. The fastest animal on land can run for short distances at about 96kn (60 miles) per hour. Hindi cita, from Sanskrit citrakaya - tiger/leopard: Citra- variegated + kaya - body Miscellaneous Bungalow - A small house or cottage usually having a single story and sometimes as additional attic story. A thatched or tiled one-story house in India surrounded by a wide veranda. Hindi bangala, Bengali bungalow, Gujarati bangalo Bazaar - A market consisting of a street lined with shops and stalls especially one in the Middle East.

A fair or sale at which miscellaneous articles are sold, often for charitable purposes. Italian bazaro, and Urdu bazaar, both from Persian. Catamaran - A boat with two parallel hulls or floats, especially a light sailboat with a mast mounted on a transverse frame joining the hulls: A raft of logs or floats lashed together and propelled by a paddles or sails. Tamil kattumaram: kattu- to tie + maram- wood flog: tied wood Cheroot (sheroot) - A cigar with square cut ends French cheroute, from Tamil curuttu/churuttu/shuruttu - roll of tobacco This word would have been absorbed into the French language during the early 16th century, when French were trying to get a foot hold in South India (Hyderabad), and from French would have come into English. Coir - Fiber from the outer husk of the coconut, used in potting compost and for making ropes and matting. Origin from Malayalam kayaru - cord Coolie - (coolly) Offensive.

An unskilled Asian laborer Hindi and Telegu: kuli - day laborer, perhaps from kuli - a tribe in Gujarat or Urdu kuli - slave A person from the Indian subcontinent: a person of Indian descent (Offensive) Dinghy - A small open boat carried as a tender, lifeboat, or pleasure craft on a larger boat" A small rowboat. An inflatable rubber life raft. Hindi - dimgi, variant of demgi - float, raft The 'gh' in English serves to indicate the hard 'g' Gymkhana - Any of various meets at which contests are held to test the skill of the competitors, as in equestrian ship, gymnastics or sports car racing. Probably alteration (influenced by gymnastics) fromHindi gend-khana - race court: gend- ball + khana - house Indigo - A tropical plant of the pea family, which was formerly widely cultivated as a source of dark blue dye.

The dark blue dye obtained from this plant A color between blue and violet in the spectrum From Portuguese indigo, via Latin, from Greek Indikon, from India, the River Iindus Loot (n) - Valuables pillaged in time of war: spoils Stolen goods: Goods illicitly obtained as by bribery. Loot (v) To pillage, spoil Hindi lut, from Sanskrit loptrum/lotrum - plunder Palanquin (palankeen) - A covered litter carried on poles on the shoulders of two or four men, formerly used in Eastern Asia. Portuguese - palanquim, from Javanese pelangki, from Pali pallanko, from Sanskrit paryankah - couch, bed Polo - A game resembling hockey, played on horse back with a long handled clubs and a wooden ball. An ancient game of the East still played in upper Indus valley (extreme West of the Himalayas). Introduced first at Calcutta and a little later in Punjab and played first in England in 1871. From Balti language (a Tibeto- Burman language) meaning ball Teak - hard durable timbre used in shipbuilding and for making furniture.

The large deciduous tree native to India and South East Asia, which yields this timber. From Portuguese teca, from Tamil Tamil/Malayalam tekka Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India - Read Treat Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India posted Jul 18, 2012, 12:17 AM by Yush Ratty In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print and a new edition is due out next year. What accounts for its enduring appeal? Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary's short and mysterious title. Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary's short and mysterious title. The subtitle reveals more: "A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. By Colonel Henry Yule and AC Burnell." But even the word "discursive" doesn't quite prepare the reader for what is to come.

"It's a madly unruly and idiosyncratic work," says poet Daljit Nagra. "Not so much an orderly dictionary as a passionate memoir of colonial India. Rather like an eccentric Englishman in glossary form." Take the entry for the Indian word dam. The dictionary defines it as: "Originally an actual copper coin. Damri is a common enough expression for the infinitesimal in coin, and one has often heard a Briton in India say: 'No, I won't give a dumree!' with but a vague notion what a damri meant." That is the etymology of dam. But Yule and Burnell have more to say.

"And this leads to the suggestion that a like expression, often heard from coarse talkers in England as well as in India, originated in the latter country, and that whatever profanity there may be in the animus, there is none in the etymology, when such an one blurts out 'I don't care a dam!' in other words, 'I don't care a brass farthing!'" There is a huge delight in language that's evident throughout the dictionary, says Dr Kate Teltscher, reader in English Literature at Roehampton University, who is preparing the new Oxford World Classics edition. 50 words from India Sources: Hobson-Jobson, Oxford English Dictionary "It's a hugely ambitious attempt to trace linguistic influence… it's all about the distance that words travel," she says. "It's also about looking at words in their context, and seeing how they describe a lost way of life." When the book was published, it was already a source of nostalgia for the passing of the East India Company era as India came under British rule. "There was a market for it in India, amongst the British serving in India. One review recommended it as an ideal 'after-dinner reading in camp'," says Teltscher.

"It does include a lot of administrative terms - things that the British needed to know. But it was also clearly meant for diversion and entertainment, both for the British serving in India and the British when they had returned home." Anglo-Indian food features prominently. For example, it defines kedgeree (or kitchery) thus: "A mess of rice, cooked with butter and dal and flavoured with a little spice, shred onion, and the like. It's a common dish all over India, and often served at Anglo-Indian breakfast tables. In England we find the word is often applied to a mess of re-cooked fish, served for breakfast, but this is inaccurate. Fish is frequently eaten with kedgeree, but is no part of it." Chilly, we learn, is "the popular Anglo-Indian name of the pod of red pepper". "There is little doubt that the name was taken from Chile in South America," the compilers Yule and Burnell say, "whence the plant was carried to the Indian archipelago and thence to India." "Who doesn't know what chilli means now?" asks Daljit Nagra.

"But here it's been recorded probably for first time in a Western dictionary and I love the idea of witnessing the birth of that word." For writers such as Nagra, Hobson-Jobson has often been a source of inspiration. Here is how Hobson-Jobson defines naukar-chaukar. It means "the servants" but the authors continue: "One of those jingling double-barrelled phrases in which Orientals delight even more than Englishmen... As regards Englishmen, compare hugger-mugger, hurdy-gurdy, tip-top, higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, tit-for-tat, topsy-turvy... harum-scarum, roly-poly, rump and stump, slip-slop…" "I love these rhyming words in Hobson-Jobson," says Nagra. "They're such a familiar feature of my mother tongue and I can see how it's inspired so many writers, most famously Salman Rushdie whose novel Midnight's Children is richly sprinkled with phrases such as writing-shiting, pudding-shudding." The word Hobson-Jobson itself is one of these.

"My friend Major John Trotter tells me that he has repeatedly heard this phrase used by British soldiers in the Punjab. It is in fact an Anglo-Saxon version of the wailings of the Mahommedans as they beat their breasts in the procession of the Moharram - 'Ya Hasan! Ya Hosain!'" Another author who has drawn inspiration from the dictionary is Tom Stoppard. In his play Indian Ink, two characters compete to use as many Hobson-Jobson words as possible: Flora: "While having tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgeree on my dungarees and had to go to the gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a coolie." Nirad: "I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny." Stoppard says he deliberately chose words that the English-speaking audience would be familiar with. One of the surprises is that there are so many of these.

"By exploring the words that are in Hobson-Jobson we start to realise how many words that we use every day, we don't even think of as particularly being of Indian origin actually are," says Teltscher. "So words like shampoo, words like pyjamas, words like bangle. We tend to think of Empire in terms of domination and control, in terms of the way power was used and abused. But we can also think of it in more intimate ways and I think Hobson-Jobson allows us to do that." Nagra says this is exactly what he loves about Hobson-Jobson. "That it now feels like a benign project of Victorian multiculturalism, where words from Hindi, Malay, Arabic and even Chinese can cohabit and intermingle with English words - words that have themselves been remade by rubbing alongside their new neighbours." In his introduction to the book, Yule writes that words of Indian origin have been "insinuating themselves into English ever since the end of the reign of Elizabeth and the beginning of that of King James".

Terms such as calico, chintz and gingham had already by then "effected a lodgement in English warehouses and shops, and were lying in wait for entrance into English literature". Eccentric, entertaining, full of curious detail, the dictionary is nonetheless very much of its time. Teltscher notes "an almost innate sense of British cultural superiority" running through the book. Novelist Amitav Ghosh, meanwhile, is quite sure he would not wish to meet Yule and Burnell. "No. I don't think I would at all," he says. "I enjoy the book but it's absolutely ridden with ideas of racial separation. I would never be a guest at their dinner party." Arthur Burnell, a scholar of South Indian languages, died before the project was completed. Colonel Henry Yule, a retired Bengal engineer, who became president of the Royal Asiatic Society, eventually drew his 14-year labour to a close in 1886, not because it was finished, but as he put it, "ars longa, vita brevis". Art is long, life is short.

The words English owes to India - English Vocabulary - English - The Free Dictionary Language Forums The words English owes to India Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2012 5:07:14 AM Rank: Advanced Member From the BBC website today - Can anyone enlighten us as to English words that have been adopted by Indian languages? B - bandana, bangle, bazaar, bungalow C - catamaran, char, cheroot, chintz, chit, chokey, chutney, cummerbund, curry D - dinghy, dungarees P - pariah, pundit, purdah, pyjamas S - shampoo Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2012 7:14:06 AM Rank: Member Neurons: 72 Location: Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan There is nothing much revealing about it, simply it is vice versa; most of these words, i am not quite sure about a few of them, originate from different sub-continental languages/dialects adopted by the English, during the colonial era.

Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2012 9:01:58 AM Rank: Advanced Member Neurons: 200,204 Location: Helsinki, Southern Finland Province, Finland Here's a Wikipedia page, list of English words of Indian origin (Hindi/Urdu, Sanskrit, Tamil, and some other Indian languages). In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2012 5:26:57 PM Rank: Advanced Member Neurons: 56,485 How about the word India itself? It started off as land of the River Indus, but came to mean to Europeans South Asia in general, so you had the Indies. Only trying to get to the Indies the opposite way, they hit America instead, so you got the East Indies (original) and the West Indies (oops!), and American Indians (now native Americans or First Nations, I think?) and Amerindians in South America. And potential for confusion as to what 'Indian' means in English, particular US English, I would think! It would have been OK if they could have reached 'the Indies' by going the other way.

***** Americans, always sticking their nose in!! (joke, peace!) of course, after all the corruptions on the way west, the word is not 'Indus' in India, so technically that is just the English word being sent back...but not before it got about a bit...a seriously overused word!! What English words originated from India? - Quora Quora Answer Wiki 13 Answers Jonathon Green , I am a lexicographer and establishing etymologies is a central part of making a dictionary Written Jan 27, 2011 Here some slang ones (not all are current, and some may have alternative sources): Blighty: Britain [from Hindi bilyati = wilyati, foreign, esp. European; ultimately Arabic wilayat, an inhabited country, a foreign country] bobbery: an argument, a disturbance [from Hindi Bap re! O father!, a common exclamation of surprise or grief] chillum: a pipe used for smoking marijuana [from Hindi chilam, the bowl of a hugga pipe or hookah] chokey: 1 [mid-19C+] a prison 2 [mid-19C+] (UK Und.) the punishment cells.

3 [late 19C+] imprisonment. 4 [late 19C+] the prison punishment diet of bread and water; thus chokey merchant, one who is suffering such a punishment. 5 [1990s+] (UK black) physical violence, ‘punishment’. [from Hindi chauki, a four-sided building or a shed, esp. a customs house or police station and thus a lock-up] dungarees: a type of trousers [from Hindi dungri, a coarse calico; also name of a disreputable Bombay suburb] ganja: marijuana (esp. that grown in Jamaica) [from Hindi ganja, the hemp plant] goolies: the testicles [either from Hindi golí, a bullet, ball or pill or dial. gullies, marbles; given the common equation of the male genitals with weaponry, one might also note dial.

gully, a large knife, although that would more properly represent the penis; also note New South Wales Aborigine goolie, a stone] pukka: first-rate, desirable [from Hindi pakka, substantial, initially used in the Raj, of buildings] tickety-boo: fine, wonderful, all in order [Hindi tikai babu, it’s all right, sir] wallah: a man, esp. in sense of a man who is pertaining to or connected with something, usu. a job. [from Hindi sfx wala, pertaining to or connected with, and comes in turn from the Arabic wal, proximity. It is the equivalent, therefore, of the Lat. -arius] I have some gems to share too: Bangle from Hindi Bāngṛī बांगड़ी = Type of bracelet (colourful mostly), worn on the wrist, by females Cheetah from Hindi cītā, चीता = Motley, variegated Chutney from Hindi chatni, चटनी = To crush, spicy condiment made by crushing fruit/vegatables with vinegar/water and spices.

Cot from Hindi Khāt, खाट = Portable bed Curry from karī, in Tamil Cushy from Hindi khushi, ख़ुशी = Happiness Dharma from Sanskrit धर्म,dhárma = The principle of cosmic order Dacoit from Hindi dakait, डकैत् = An armed robber Ghat from Hindi ghaut, घाट = Mountain pass Guru from Hindi guru, गुरु = Teacher, one-to-be-honoured Juggernaut from Hindi Jaggernaut/Jagannath, जगन्नाथ = Another title of Krishna Jungle from Hindi jungle, जंगल = Forest Karma from Sanskrit karm, कर्म = Concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect Khaki from Hindi khaki, खाकी = Dusty color Mynah from Hindi myna/maina, मैना = A type of bird Nabob from Hindi nabab/nawwab, नवाब = Deputy governor Punch from Hindi panch, पाँच = Originally for a drink made from five ingredients

, now used like an orange/citrus punch Roti from Hindi roti, रोटी = Kind of bread, made wheat/rice flour Rupee from Hindi rupaiyah, रुपया = The indian rupee Sahib from Hindi sahab, साहब = Master/lord Sari from Hindi saari/saadi, सारी = Wrapping garmet worn by Indian women Sorbet from Hindi sharbat, शरबत = Refreshing drink/juice Thug from Hindi Thag, ठग = Thief, one who swindles Typhoon from Hindi toofan, तूफान = Cyclonic storm Verandah from Hindi, वेरंडा = Large courtyard Yoga from Hindi yoga, योग = Union (with the supreme spirit) Referring sources:

Question: From which language do we get the words dinghy, shampoo and dungarees?
Answer: HINDI